Sheffield Wednesday continue their fight for Championship survival against Birmingham City at Hillsborough.
Sheffield Wednesday will stay second bottom but can move to within five points of safety with a win, whilst Birmingham City can go 16th with a win.
Team News
Sheffield Wednesday have no fresh injury concerns after their FA Cup exit at Coventry in midweek.
Cameron Dawson (knee), Callum Paterson, Josh Windass, Dominic Iofra (all unspecified) and Juan Delgado (hip) remain absent.
Birmingham City could be without midfielder, Alex Pritchard after he suffered a calf strain in his debut during their defeat at West Brom.
Cody Drameh (toe) and Lukas Jutkiewicz (calf) could return but John Ruddy (calf), Dion Sanderson (ankle), George Hall (hamstring) and Alfie Chang (knee) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Sheffield Wednesday entertain Birmingham City at Hillsborough on Friday 9 February at 8pm GMT, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Sheffield Wednesday have won one of their last nine league meetings against Birmingham City (W1, D3, L5).
- Birmingham are unbeaten in their last four visits to Hillsborough (W2, D2).
- Birmingham have kept one clean sheet in their last six visits to Hillsborough.
- Sheffield Wednesday have kept one clean sheet in their last five league games (W1, D1, L3).
- Juninho Bacuna (5 goals + 5 assists) and Jay Stanfield (8 goals + 2 assists) have been involved in more goals than any other Birmingham player this season.
Prediction
Currently eight points adrift of safety and now out of the FA Cup after they were comfortably outplayed in the second half at Coventry amidst heavy rotation, Sheffield Wednesday now need to knuckle down and start to build a winning run if want to stay up.
Avoiding basic defensive errors however is going to be vital after their midweek meltdown with soft if evasive marking, although they must continue to do everything correct in the attack.
Birmingham meanwhile just lacked clinical end product at West Brom but with two wins in their last 12 matches, they just need to try and cut out their defensive silliness because there are goals and wins within this team if can sort themselves out.
I therefore don’t expect this game to finish goalless but with two leaky defences, a tight draw feels likely if can avoid making too many errors at the back.
Prediction: Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 Birmingham City
Result: Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Birmingham City